The fiction of Philip Roth and John Updike / George J. Searles.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Roth and Updike: Social Realists in an Unreal Society -- "Roots": Ethnic/Cultural Backgrounds in Roth and Updike -- Father and Sons: Family Relationships in Roth and Updike -- Sons and Lovers: Romantic Involvement and Personal Morality in Roth and Updike -- Secondary Themes in Roth and Updike: Materialism, Vocation, the Clergy, and Sport -- Modus Operandi: The Literary Method of Roth and Updike -- Other Modes: Roth and Updike as Experimental Writers -- Conclusion: Assessments and Projections.

In this comparative study of Philip Roth and John Updike, Searle examines their literary methods, provides background materials about each writer, and discusses their themes. He finds that Roth concentrates on the individual within the society, while Updike describes society's typical individual; Roth writes in the first person, Updike in the third; setting is incidental to Roth, while Updike can be considered a regional writer. He points out that both writers share themes such as ethnicity, interpersonal relationship, moral responsibility and guilt, and are preoccupied with subsidiary concerns such as Materialism, the importance of meaningful work, the fallen state of the clergy, and the idea of sport as metaphor.